Leaving Aperture
by BPADancegirl6
Summary: GLaDOS has just released Chell from her testing - but has she really escaped, or is it all just fake? Why was she tested? How did she get dragged into this anyway?
1. Chapter 1 - Holographic Fields

**Chapter 1 – Holographic Fields **

Chell had been outside for only a few hours when she hit the wall. She'd been running as fast as she could, excited about the new world around her. She might have noticed that it was too perfect, almost synthetic, if she hadn't been so distracted by the dazzling sunlight…

Then it hit her. Literally. It was invisible, but definitely solid. It surely couldn't be natural. She ran the other direction until she heard something that made here stop dead in her tracks.

"You really thought that I'd let you out that easily, didn't you?" A robotic voice inquired. GLaDOS. "You're dumber than you look. You'll be getting an 'unsatisfactory' mark in your file, but I guess you don't care about that – or don't understand it either," She droned on.

No doubt about it – Chell was now doomed. She'd have to return to everything she worked so hard to escape from for the past who-knows-how-many years.

"This was the first of many more tests you will complete," GLaDOS informed her as the fields flickered away, revealing that everything but her companion cube was fake. "You won't need a portal gun, or anything really. I'm surprised I even let you keep that cube."

"Well, you will be my 'lab rat' so to speak for a new holographic image system that I've recovered from the old system files – but this will be far more than a simple projection that scientists from the past used. This is a potentially deadly, real world that can be _anything _I want it to be."

At that last sentence, Chell was really horrified. Anything this maniacal robot wanted it to be…


	2. Chapter 2 - A Risky Escape Plan

**Author's Note: Sorry this took so long for me to upload! I'd been busy writing for this story in my notebook…and completely forgot about actually, I don't know, maybe UPDATING THE STORY? Exactly. Constructive criticism is accepted, and really embraced actually, even if it is just correcting spelling or grammar. I might take requests for some story plot ideas later on. Speaking of later on, I have a lot in store for this story. Expect updates more often. The chapters will be longer around chapter #5. Enjoy this chapter! **

**I do not own any characters or settings from the Portal and Half-Life series. **

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**Chapter 2 – A Risky Escape Plan**

She decided to escape. That was herone thought; the goal she'd reached already, but had then been ripped from her grasp. She assumed it again, but with even more determination.

Chell took in her surroundings. The room she was in was pretty large, with black "non-portalable" panels for the walls. Most of these panels were cracked or broken though, and she could see a white panel behind one that she could reach if only she had her portal gun. One floor tile was missing entirely, but she didn't risk dropping down it. She made a mental note to avoid that area.

While she was scanning the room for any other escape route, the room suddenly flickered. She was standing in a large underground cavern now.

_No, it's not real! _She thought._ Don't tell yourself that! It's only an image!_

The fake cavern had an eerie glow to it, but she couldn't see much. Sure enough, she hit the wall when she walked too far towards the edges. She was feeling around for that crack that she'd seen in the wall, hoping that finding it would help her differentiate between reality and holograph, when it showed up. It was out of nowhere – all of a sudden, this insane creature with grotesque features jumped out. It was a tiny, dog-sized thing with only three legs. There were three strange lines on its back, and had a strange mound of what might've been eyes where a normal creature's neck would have been. Just as it poised to jump, it dissolved, along with the entire room. She was sitting on the floor again, just where she'd been earlier.

"Hmm… you fell for _that_, too. These aren't 'real' worlds. Just regular holographic images. Of course, you haven't even caught on to what I'm really testing for now," GLaDOS said. "The portal project was a success. A triumph." Multicolored confetti rained down over the entire room. "So now, I needed something else to test. And why not use this opportunity to torture you, the one who murdered me? Yes, now I am testing _you._ Just to see if you really are as stubborn as it says in your file. I might even b- hey. What are you doing?"

Throughout the entire speech, Chell had been hugging her companion cube. She squeezed it harder and harder as GLaDOS droned on.

And then she heard a click.


	3. Chapter 3 - The Cube's Secret bonus ch!

**Author's Note: Annnnnd… we're back with another chapter! Yeah, not one of my favorites, but the story stops dragging soon. The chapter name is important *cough* - punctuation - *cough.* It took longer than expected to actually get to typing this, especially when school just started back from winter break for me. Constructive criticism is accepted, and really embraced actually, even if it is just correcting spelling or grammar. I might take requests for some story plot ideas later on. Speaking of later on, I have a lot in store for this story. Expect updates more often. The chapters will be longer around chapter #5. Enjoy this very short chapter…**

**I do not own any characters or settings from the Portal and Half-Life series. **

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**Chapter 3 – The cube's secret?**

When Chell had accidentally pressed on a heart on one of the cube's faces, the entire thing unfolded, revealing the portal gun inside. The portal gun. _Her _portal gun. The same one that was supposed to be out in space with Wheatley and that insane corrupt Space core. A thousand questions raced through her mind – _If I have the portal gun, then could Wheatley have returned? Who put it in the cube? Had GLaDOS known it was in there?_ – but she quickly dismissed them all and focused on escaping. She ran to the cracked panel and fired a portal onto the distant white wall, then dropped down through the missing floor tile, praying for a white concrete panel to be at the bottom. It worked – she fired a portal just in time to land on a maintenance catwalk behind the chamber.

But this path was oddly familiar… she couldn't place it though – wait, it was the same one that she'd used a long, long time ago to navigate out of Aperture the first time. It led to GLaDOS' chamber – which wasn't exactly the place she wanted to be right then. So she looked for _any _other place to go. There was a cross-roads (or really a cross-catwalks?) right up ahead. To the best of her ability, she tried to remember which one went to _her_ chamber, then chose the opposite.

This, too, worked.

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**Author's Note: I now realize exactly **_**how**_** short that was. Wow. SOOOOOO, please enjoy this mini-chapter that I originally planned to add in later as chapter 7.**

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**Chapter 3 ½ – CAROLINE!**

"CAROLINE!" GLaDOS screamed inside of her mind.

"You called?" Caroline's consciousness replied from the recesses of the same mind.

"HOW DID YOU GET HER PORTAL GUN BACK!?"

"You really have no idea, do you? Well I would expect that from the same person who tried to delete me and failed miserably."

"_**That **_is beside the point," GLaDOS retorted, obviously upset about the mention of it. "But the portal device was launched into space, along with her and the moron!"

"That it was. But _I_ had more power than you think in that moment when you saved Chell."

"Don't say her name."

"Chell, Chell, Chell, Chell, Chell!" Caroline sang, just to get on GLaDOS' nerves. "It is true, you know. I was more powerful than you. I caused you to save her with that claw. And even though all you can see of the ASHPD in that moment is it flying out of her hands, I remember you bringing it back, all because I said so."

"No. You can't have more power than me! I'm in control of this entire facility!" GLaDOS yelled, while rotating all of the panels in the room, as if to prove that she was.

"But I _am_ you. This mechanical body was empty until I was put into it. Then all the software corrupted a part, and shoved all of the good human traits into the back. Until she found out about the small, but still living part of goodness left."

"But how did you get it into the cube? Something else goes into those."

"All easily done to let her escape. Which you're doing right now while arguing with me instead of watching the monitors."

Caroline was right about that. Chell had already made it half way through the ruined chambers. But GLaDOS _had_ to know one more thing first.

"Why do you care about her so much anyways?"

"Because she's my daughter."

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**Author's Note: Well it's obvious which theory I support there. If you want to know about others, then just look in my bio! That's all for now!**


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